Locked Out of Heaven
by Real.Smile
Summary: As the Dark Lord grows stronger, Adrienne Zabini falls further into the darkness that surrounds her. She begins to lose herself, and it seems that Draco is the only person that can save her from herself. Rated for dark themes. Sequel to Betrothed in Darkenss.


**Author's Note:** So here's the sequel. I'm sorry that it took me so long to get this up. I just wanted to get the plot right and the story line going in my head before I posted. I don't really have much to say except, I hope all my readers from _Betrothed in Darkness_ return to read _Locked out of Heaven. _I'm going to try to make this one darker than the last, I mean it's only make sense. So just let me know how it is. I don't really write dark things, so this is going to be new and exciting for me.

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own Harry Potter, just Adrienne. The first two paragraphs contain a paraphrased and seriously edited description from _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows._

* * *

It was dark when she appeared on the street. The moon had long ago make its trek upward to its place in the sky, and it provided the only light on the street. She brushed her dark hair from her eyes and looked down the driveway that she'd appeared in front of. After a moment was looking to the darkness, the girl started down the path and into the darkness. She watched as the high hedge curved with the driveway, it was the only thing that she could see clearly anyway. A few meters in front of her there were a set of powerful wrought-iron gates. The girl raised her left arm in a sort of salute and passed the gate as if were made of air. As her body disrupted the seemingly solid form of the gate, it swirled around her body and then settled into its original shape.

With her hands in her pocket, and her fingers tightly clenched around her wand, she continued down the path. The path seemed to never end, as if it went on eternally in the darkness. Soon a large manor emerged from the darkness. The manor was poorly lit, however it only to her a moment to spot the sparkling lights downstairs. The closer she got the manor the more that she could hear the faint sounds of a fountain. As she approached the door it swung open, however once she was through the threshold she realized that there was no one there. The door had swung open on its own accord. She'd walked out of the darkness of the outdoors and into the darkness of the large hallway. The carpet under her feet was plush and it took he a moment to adjust to it. The wall were covered in portraits of men and women that had been prior inhabitants of the manor. All of the portraits shared similar features, pale faces and light eyes. Their eyes followed her form as she walked down the corridor, her hands still in her pockets. She only stopped her forward motion to when she came to a heavy wooden door. After a moment, she reached forward and turned the bronze knob.

This was the same room that she'd been in a year ago. The same room that she'd made her first kill. The drawing room was set up the same way that it had been on that day. There was a long table in the middle of the room and the furniture that was usually set up in the room was against the wall. The figures at the table were silent, but their eyes were on her the moment that she entered the room. The room was only lit by the fire at the far end of the room.

"Ms. Zabini," a high pitched voice greeted.

The voice came from the seat directly in front of the fire. It took a long moment for her eyes to adjust to the lighting so that she could make out of the form. However, she spoke before her eyes adjusted. That voice was easily recognized.

"My Lord," she replied as she bowed in his direction.

"I have summoned you here to bestow upon you the Dark Mark," the Dark Lord said in his high voice. "I feel that you can be trusted."

"Thank you, My Lord."

Over the summer, the female Zabini had been going about the Wizarding World, doing the Dark Lord's dirty work. Usually it consisted of terrorizing the community, a little explosion here, shooting some curses there. The Dark Mark was always casted over the scene, just so there was confusion as to who had caused all of the trouble. On the occasion, she would be involved in an attack, the murder of someone that could be a potential threat to the Dark Lord's cause. The better that she did, the darker the tasks she was given were. Some nights, her conscience would get the best of her. She would wonder what she was going and why she was doing it. She would wonder how she managed to get involved in this whole debacle. However, she already knew the answer to that question. So when it was time to do what she'd been told, she always came through without a hitch.

The Dark Lord approached her and took her left arm in his hand. He then brought the tip of his wand to her skin. The pain was all but unbearable from the moment the process started. Cursed ink coursed its way through the veins. It was like a thousand little knives stabbing at her skin all at the same time. The ink worked its way into her skin slowly. The thousands of knives stabbing at her skin in a different spot moment by moment, and in the wake of the stabbing sensation, there was a burning sensation. The ink stabbed and burned up her forearm until it just stopped.

"Welcome, Ms. Zabini."

* * *

"What a brave little sister I have," Blaise drawled as he sat next to his younger sister. They twins were seated on the sofa in the living room of the Zabini manor. Adrienne had her legs tucked under her with her left arm lying across her lap. Her right arm was placed on the arm of the sofa and holding her head up. Her brown eyes flicked away from the black mark on her arm as Blaise sat beside her.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" she questioned as her eyes feel back upon the mark on her arm.

The house elf Mimi appeared in the room and sat a tray on the table, before she scurried off again. On the tray were two black mugs filled to the brim with hot chocolate. Blaise leaned forward and picked up the mugs. "I know that it is summertime and all, but I think that you could still use a cup of hot chocolate." He handed the mug off to Adrienne. Adrienne grasped the mug between both of her hands. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she told him before she took a sip of her beverage. "I'm just fine."

"You're lying," Blaise told her. "I'm your twin, Adrienne. You think that I don't know what my face looks like when I lie?"

"I'm not," she told him as she brought her mug to her lips again. Without warning, Blaise reached over and pressed his thumb to the darkened mark on her skin. The pain was blinding. The edge of her vision blurred as she gasped in pain. She heard the mug fall to the floor and shattered, spilling the contents on to the rug. Blaise pressed harder on her skin, and the sound of her crying out in pain was muffled. Finally, he removed his thumb and the pain started to fade. The female Zabini sat clutching at the leather of the sofa beneath her as she caught her breath. "What the bloody hell was that for?" she shouted at her brother.

"Are you going to tell me the truth now?" he questioned as she pointed his wand at the spilled beverage. The stain that had started to set on the rug disappeared and the mug repaired itself and flew back to the tray. "I don't appreciate you lying to me."

"I don't appreciate you doing whatever it is that you just did," she snapped back. "I told you I was fine and I meant it."

Blaise sat back and relaxed into the sofa as his sister stood. He watched as she paced about the room for a moment and then made her way to the piano. She opened the lid with one quick motion and then sat down on the stool before the grand piano. It had been a while since he'd seen her or even heard her play. When they were younger, he would sometimes wake up to the sounds of her ebony fingers tickling the ivories. When they would come back for Christmas Break, she used to spend hours at the piano. Then one day it just stopped. The piano sat in the living room untouched by human hands. She placed her fingers on the keys and just pressed on them, the result was a very dissonant chord. He watched as she pushed her hair over her shoulders and placed her fingers over the keys again. This time playing a familiar melody.

He watched her for a full five minutes as her fingers glided across the white and black keys. In this moment, he was reminded of a younger Adrienne. An Adrienne that used to sit in the kitchen with him as they plotted to do something annoying to their older sister. An Adrienne that would spend her free time looking at music that would challenge her. An Adrienne that would beg him to sneak down to the kitchen to have a tart at midnight. An Adrienne that couldn't kill a bug because she was too terrified of it. As he looked at her now, he saw that that Adrienne was long gone. Now he was looking at his sister, a young woman. This was an Adrienne that struggled with finding herself in this whirlwind of darkness. This Adrienne played the piano because she knew no other outlet. This Adrienne could kill a man without a blink of an eye.

"Blaise," she started as she closed the lid on the piano. "Would you like to share a tart with me?" she asked with an almost childish smile.

Maybe he was incorrect about Adrienne. She was constantly surprising him after all. Maybe under the Adrienne that was lost in this dark period was the Adrienne that he'd known. "Yes."

She took his arm and led him into the kitchen where she told Mimi to fetch a tart of them. Once the task, she'd called for be done, she turned to her brother and sighed. "I know that you think poorly of me, Blaise."

"I don't think poorly of you Adrienne. I just cannot seem to figure out why you would want to be in this so completely." He looked over at her. "Don't get me wrong, I'm invested in this as well, but you seem to be more invested in it than even Bellatrix."

"I take full offense to that, Blaise," she snarled.

"You have killed two people, Adrienne, and assisted in how many?" Blaise cut the tart in half. "You are cold. Even Draco says so."

"I am Slytherin."

"That does not excuse the lack of feeling you have towards life," he told her.

The room was silent for a moment. The sight of the tart before him was making him sick. He had never intended to confront her about this. He was just going to let it be.

"You think I have a lack of feeling towards life?" she questioned with a dry laugh.

"You seem to have no trouble sleeping at night."

She was quiet as she pushed her half of the tart around on the plate. "I have brewed sleeping potions every Sunday, enough of a week. I cannot sleep at night, Blaise. I have to drink a potion to sleep at night, and even then sometimes they are not strong enough. On those nights, I wake up tangled in the sheets and in a cold sweat. There are even nights that I wake up screaming. You don't know that, no one does, because I have my bedroom soundproofed. I don't want to concern anyone with my problems. As for Draco, I'll have to speak with him about that. Like I said, I don't wish to burden others with my problems. I apologize for being cold towards you. I will work on it." She stood and brushed her hair from her face. In that moment, Blaise was almost certian that he saw tears in her eyes. "Now, if you will excuse me."

* * *

"We should talk," she said quietly as she appeared in the bedroom of Draco Malfoy.

He was lounging in his bed with a book in hand, and looked mildly surprised that she'd apparated into his room. He placed the book on the black sheets and looked at her. She was dressed in her cream pajama set. Her dark hair was down. Her brown eyes looked red, but he couldn't quite tell in the darkness.

"Okay, what about?" he questioned as he motioned for her to join him in bed.

Adrienne complied as she walked over to the bed and sat down on the plush black comforter. She crossed her legs and sighed. "You told Blaise you think I'm cold."

Draco sighed and rolled her grey eyes at her. "You have become cold, Adrienne."

"Since the end of term?" she questioned. Draco nodded. "I apologize." Draco waved his hand, signaling that the issue was forgotten. It wasn't a very large issue to begin with. He and Blaise were just having a conversation about the behavior of his fiancee, he had taken to calling her that over the summer. It was then that he said that she had been come distant and cold.

"There is something else on your mind," Draco told her. She settled back against the pillows and sighed. "What is it?"

"I haven't been able to sleep," she told him. "Not since a few days ago."

"Have you been taking the potion?" he questioned.

"I fear that the potions have lost their effect," she told him quietly. "They have not been working properly for sometime now."

Draco was surprised. Every time that they spoke about the potions, she said that they had been working. Whenever he stayed with her they worked. Of course, he hadn't slept in her bed in a few weeks. When he saw her during the day, she looked tired. However, he just figured that she hadn't taken the potion because she was trying to ween herself off. Never did he imagine that the potions weren't working at all.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he questioned.

"I didn't want to burden you. You have your own problems."

"Adrienne," he sighed as he ran his hand over his face. She had been distancing herself from him all summer. The closer he got to her the more she would distance herself . He sighed and reached over to her for her hands. She placed her hands in hers. "Does it hurt?" he questioned.

"Hmm?"

"The mark." He rolled up her sleeve to reveal the mark. This was the first time that she had looked at er own mark. The skin around the black mark was red, however the black skull with the snake protruding from it's mouth stood out poorly against her ebony flesh. It made her sick to her stomach, and she had to look away. "Does it hurt?"

"Yes," she told him.

"You look tired," he told he after a moment. He was useless in this situation. He knew from experience that the pain was going to take time to fade. Yet, he hated to feel helpless when dealing with her. It made him feel like he was failing her.

"I am," she told him honestly. "May I stay?"

"Always," he told her. "Do you need a-"

"No, no, it won't work. I'll just have to make due."

Draco shrugged knowing that it wasn't a great idea to argue with her. He watched as she slipped under the comforter and settled into the pillows. After a moment, she decided that the position wasn't comfortable enough for her. She rolled over and he found her body pressed against his torso, with her head resting on his chest. He fingers found their way into her dark hair. He found himself unable to sleep until he was certain that she was asleep. Ever so often, he would feel her body , somehow she managed to get to sleep, and he followed soon after.


End file.
